Unless you
have been hibernating on vacation in the Bahamas, you have probably heard of
the current trouble brewing within MUFON between those MUFON members voicing
their discontent with changes in MUFON and MUFON’s autocratic and bureaucratic
leadership.

News spread
like wildfire across the Internet recently after four MUFON State Directors
were fired within a short timeframe. There, I used the F word, although MUFON
International Director Clifford Clift prefers to use the more euphemistic “let
go”.“I am letting you go” is what you
tell a caller who doesn’t get the hint that a phone conversation has dragged on
ad nausea, not when terminating a volunteer. Poor choice of words aside, what
is interesting is not that this purge occurred but who was excommunicated from
the organization. I was shocked that two long standing State Directors, both
very active in UFO circles were on the chopping block.

Sex

Almost
immediately the Internet rumor mill began to churn and someone spat out on a
message board that it seemed highly suspicious that all four state directors
were women. Was the MUFON Board living up to its “Good Old Boys” image and
reasserting its testosterone laden will on gender demographics or was it just
pure coincidence? Clifford
Clift correctly pointed out that this batch of firings was just women but the
previous batch was men, so truth be told, the MUFON Board is probably not made
up of misogynists.

Lies

Clifford
Clift in an email to all State Directors gave his reasoning for both sets of
personnel actions: From the first batch, Ken Cherry was fired as
the State Director for Texas
because he made derogatory comments about MUFON, members, witnesses, and
Ufologists and refused to publicly apologize. James Clarkson resigned as State
Director for the state of Washington
due to his dislike of MUFON's bureaucracy.For some reason Clifford omitted why he fired Richard Lang, State
Director for North Carolina
and the one time wonder boy of the MUFON Star Team, but more about Richard in a
future blog article.

From the
second batch, Christine Dickey, by her request, was removed as State Director
for Arizona.
Marilyn Carlson, State Director for Oklahoma
resigned. Elaine Douglass, State Director for Utah was removed from her position because
she wasn't truthful about her Assistant State Director. Leslie Varnicle was
removed as State Director of Colorado due to her management style not being
beneficial to MUFON's success.

So seven
State Directors, one seventh of the MUFON State Directorship gone within a
year, four of them fired and three resigned. What in the world is going on in
MUFON?

Well, as
much as the MUFON Board wants to paint this as just business as usual, there is
far more than meets the eye here. Let’s start
with the charge of untruthfulness as a reason for firing a State Director. Well
I don’t really know what Elaine Douglass allegedly lied about but I can tell you
that Clifford Clift was less than truthful about why Leslie Varnicle was fired
from her position.

The reason
Clifford originally gave for Leslie being fired was that her management style
was not beneficial to MUFON. Really? Of all the MUFON State Chapters that I
interacted with during my almost four year tenure as MUFON International
Director, the Colorado and Minnesota MUFON chapters were always at the top of
my ratings list for chapter cohesiveness, satisfied members, and efficient
management. All you have to do is examine where the MUFON Annual Symposium was
held over the last five years to know that Colorado MUFON under Leslie’s
leadership was continuously entrusted with running this important event and she
did an incredible job.

So what was
the real reason behind Leslie being fired?

Audiotape

A MUFON
member made an audio recording of the annual meeting between the MUFON State
Directors and the MUFON Board. That audio recording made its way to me and
after listening to the recording, I confronted the MUFON Board about some
libelous remarks that were made at the meeting. I also heard through the rumor
mill that it was Leslie who recorded that audio, but since then, I have learned
it was someone else. Evidently, the MUFON Board had heard the same rumors
because Clifford Clift in an interview with Angelia Joiner finally ‘fessed up
to the real reasons Leslie was fired. Stated reason number one was because
Leslie was in the “Ken Cherry” camp and reason number two; because she recorded
the State Director’s meeting when she was told not to.

So why
didn’t the MUFON Board just come out and state these reasons to begin with
instead of labeling Leslie as an inept leader whose management style was not
beneficial? Well if you read my previous blog article “MUFON Over Board-Save
Our Ship”, and how I was equally scapegoated by this same board, it boils down
to the new leadership worrying more about MUFON’s image and avoiding litigation
than doing what is ethically and morally responsible.

Grassroots
vs. Autocratic Rule

Let me take
you back to 1969 when two disgruntled Aerial Phenomena Research Organization
(APRO) members who were fed up with the bureaucracy and autocratic rule of APRO
leaders, decided to form their own UFO Investigative organization. This
fledgling organization, first known as the Midwest UFO Network subsequently
became the Mutual UFO Network. One of those founding members, John Schuessler
is still on the MUFON Board of Directors.

In John’s
own words he described the events of that year: “At the same
time the APRO management reacted to the government’s words by reinforcing their centralized
management approach. They wanted to direct the work of each
investigator in the field from the office in Tucson, Arizona;
thereby eliminating the need for mid-level management in the field.
They were not aware that industry was turning to the decentralized management
style.

Pleas to the APRO
management only
made them more determined that the Midwest
contingent was a threat rather than a help to APRO.”

History
Repeats Itself

I can
imagine how furious Jim and Coral Lorenzen must have been when the “Andrus and
Schuessler Camp” left the organization and began to compete for members. I can
imagine the self righteous “good riddances” uttered on the APRO Board and the
rallying of the APRO troops that followed as the leadership scrambled to
consolidate APRO’s image and message. In the end it was all for naught because
APRO had already lost its moral and ethical compass and the organization
failed.

When an
organization’s Board of Directors doesn’t listen to its constituents and
dabbles only in self talk backed up by quashing voices of dissent through
unethical actions; that organization is on a path of self destruction, just
like APRO found itself so many years ago. Hopefully the MUFON Board of
Directors and especially founding member John Schuessler can remember MUFON’s
humble beginnings and reverse the dangerous course of autocratic and unethical
rule MUFON has embarked on. Otherwise, those who cannot remember the past are condemned
to repeat it.